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Trump Speaks at Campaign Stop in Battleground Pennsylvania; Security Ramped Up Across U.S. Ahead of Election; Harris Spends Final Day on Trail Crisscrossing Battleground Pennsylvania. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 04, 2024 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ... swamp them tomorrow.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: You know, we have a massive lead. I don't even like telling you that, to be honest with you. We have a massive lead. First time ever a Republican was leading by a lot in early -- but it didn't happen. The Republicans would always be way behind. They believe in going on Election Day. So we're going to let you go on Election Day, right?

But they waited till the end, always. Democrats would always have hundreds of thousands of votes, and then you either catch him or you don't. You never know what's going to happen.

But Republicans have never been in the lead and not like this. It's a big number, so we have to just get out. You know, the ball is in our hand.

We're at the two yard line, maybe the one yard line, but it's in our hand and we put it over that. It'll be the biggest event, maybe in the history of our country. And let me tell you, it will be also something much more important than that.

It's going to save our country because our country is in trouble.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: But that's all you need to know. And another thing you want to know is Kamala broke it and I will fix it and fast.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before. This election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure. That's what it was, four years of gross nothing good happened. What good happened? They cheated on their numbers. You saw last week they cheated on all their economic. We're in like a depression territory. I'll give you a little advance notice. 12,000 jobs. When did you hear that? That's like for Walmart. That's not for that's not for us. That's not for a country. It's 250, 300, 400, 100, 12,000. We lost hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs over the last month. Think of that.

It's going to be that or whether we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country. We're going to make these unbelievable years and we're starting.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: We're starting. We're starting from a negative. You know, we're starting from like about 15 yards off the field. We're not starting at the 20. We're starting from 15 yards off the field. And speaking of football, maybe we can get the NFL to drop that ridiculous kickoff. Sit down. What the hell of it? What is that?

I watched the game the other day. I said, What the hell happened? They just kicked off and nobody moved.

Oh, well, that's up to them. This will be the golden age of America tomorrow. It's a beautiful term, isn't it? I was saying before I was just proofing and reading and studying and all that stuff. And what a beautiful term. The golden age.

We're going to be in the golden age. Won't take long.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: So tomorrow you have to stand up and tell Kamala that you've had enough. You're not going to take it anymore. You're the most incompetent vice president we've ever had. And Joe Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. Kamala, you're fired. Get the hell out of here. You're fired.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: There's a hell of a nice place. Thank you. With your vote, we're going to win Pennsylvania, and we're going to defeat Kamala and those, those radical left what they're doing to our country. Crazy Nancy Pelosi. What's about her? She has Visa stock big position. You know, she started off with nothing. Now she's worth $200 million. How did that happen?

So she has Visa stock and she sells her stock the day before it was announced that Visas under major federal investigation. I don't know. I wonder. Do you think she had any insider information? Probably.

It's disgrace. Honestly, she's a disgrace. They would have throw it a hell out of Congress. We are going to make America great again, and it's going to be fast. We're going to do it fast. We'll fast track it.

(CHEERING)

TRUMP: Over the past four years. Kamala has orchestrated the most egregious betrayal that any leader in American history has ever inflicted upon our people.

[154:35:12]

She's violated her oath of office. She's eradicated our sovereign border and unleashed an army of gangs and criminal migrants from prisons and jails, insane asylums and mental institutions from all around the world, from Venezuela and the Congo in Africa, stealing countless American lives. And these air rough -- these air rough customers that are coming much rougher than almost anybody in this room.

Other than the other night I had the Penn State national champion wrestling team. Think of this. They have a great coach. They've won exactly 11 out of the last 13 national ...

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now we have been listening for a few minutes here to former President Trump and what has been a particularly winding part of comments there. Boris, he was urging his supporters to implore their friends who may be lazy voters to get off the couch and vote.

He was heralding a big lead for Republicans in early vote, which we have seen this lead, but we don't know what it means. We just have to be very clear about that. There have obviously been some different circumstances here in recent elections, 2020 and of course before that early voting was a little bit different in terms of popularity, in terms of rules, and so it's very hard to extrapolate what we can see from this. We just need to be very clear as people are trying to read tea leaves here.

But he railed against Harris and in there peppered in there, Boris, was rallying -- railing against the NFL kickoff rule change and Nancy Pelosi's stock trades.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, the former president going on a number of tangents, weaving as he describes it. He seemed to condense his argument to these voters in Redding, Pennsylvania by telling them the importance of the Commonwealth and determining the next president saying quote, if we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax. He also asked them flatly to condense his closing argument, are you better off than you were four years ago as he continued to attack Vice President Harris and President Biden.

We're going to keep monitoring the former president's remarks, but when we come back we have to tell you about these torched ballot boxes, threats of physical violence, and now the National Guard on standby. We're going to talk about the state of election security in just moments. Stay with us.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The threat of violence after the election remains very real. Across the country, state and local officials are increasing security. In Washington, the FBI says it's established a command post to respond to any election related threats.

KEILAR: Also in Washington, local officials are taking steps to install extra security measures around the vice president's residence and also at local businesses. CNN's Gabe Cohen is following all of this for us. So Gabe, DC officials just wrapping up a news conference. What did they say?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, essentially they said they are ready and that at this point they have no information about any credible threats, but the reality is they have been actively preparing for the worst. Not just for protests, but even for potential political violence, even rioting in the coming days given what happened in 2020. And so they are really on high alert taking those active steps.

For example, the room where we're standing right now, this is or will be a command center open tomorrow. One of several in this area that will be packed with people, federal law enforcement, local officials. And we know that the police department, even today and through the week, will be fully activated.

That means every officer will be on the street working 12 hour shifts, guys. And as you mentioned, already others across DC are taking security measures into their own hands. We have seen businesses around the White House that are boarding up given damage that they experienced back in 2020.

And we've also seen fencing go up around the White House and around Vice President Kamala Harris's residence at the Naval Observatory. So certainly a lot of people on high alert right now who are concerned about safety. Take a listen. Here's what DC's police chief said just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF PAMELA A. SMITH, DC METROPOLITAN POLICE: Let me be clear. There will be no tolerance for violence in our city, no destruction or any unlawful behavior. As I've said before, we will hold all offenders accountable.

We will not tolerate the destruction of property and we will not tolerate threats to public safety as well as this election process. Should it require additional time to know the results of this election, we want everyone to know that we are ready to handle many different scenarios and we have the right people in place to keep our city safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And guys, the police chief said their officers are going to be patrolling the areas around polling places tomorrow as well. But look, law enforcement across the country are sort of walking a tightrope on Election Day because they don't want to over-police those polling places where they can become -- they're worried that it could potentially suppress votes, that people are uncomfortable with that. So they are really doing a balancing act there. But definitely folks are concerned about safety here in the nation's capital just a few hours from Election Day.

SANCHEZ: Yes, they definitely don't want to discourage any voters from casting their ballots. Gabe, Washington State, Oregon, Nevada, they've all put their National Guard units on standby. Is that as a precaution or have they already received some threats?

[15:45:00]

COHEN: As far as we can tell, at this point, it really is a precaution. Obviously, we know what happened with the attack on those ballot drop boxes in Washington and Oregon. But even the governors there have said at this point, it's really a precautionary measure.

And we just heard from D.C.'s mayor who said that they are looking at potentially requesting assistance from the National Guard in the weeks ahead. So I think that's on the radar of a lot of state and local leaders, given what we saw four years ago.

KEILAR: All right, Gabe Cohen, thank you so much. We'll have much more after a quick break. Stay with CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Quick check of where things stand right now. Just hours out from the start of Election Day in America, the candidates making their final pitches. Former President Trump starting his day in North Carolina and he's in Pennsylvania right now.

[15:50:00]

And then he'll end his night in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same city where he wrapped up his 2016 campaign.

SANCHEZ: Meantime, Vice President Kamala Harris is all in on Pennsylvania. She's spending her entire day on the ground there in the Commonwealth with at least five different stops. Pennsylvania, of course, the biggest electoral prize out of all the battleground states. And this is her 18th trip there since she launched her campaign in July.

Just a short time ago, the Harris campaign revealed when it believes we'll start to see battleground results. They expect near complete results from Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina by the end of tomorrow night. They think most of Wisconsin's results will be in by Wednesday as well as additional results in Pennsylvania. Maybe some optimism that will get a quick answer on the question of who will win the presidential election.

We want to pivot now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.

The music industry losing one of its trailblazing luminaries. Musician and producer Quincy Jones has passed away at the age of 91 at his home in Los Angeles. That's according to his representatives. Jones' decades-long career included highlights like Michael Jackson's genre-shifting Thriller album and collaborations with the industry's biggest and most sought-after stars.

KEILAR: And NASA and SpaceX are set to launch a resupply mission to the International Space Station later today. A Dragon spacecraft will be loaded with 6,000 pounds of equipment, food, supplies, and several experiments.

And coming up, storms could hit parts of the South and Midwest tomorrow, including in key swing states. How the Election Day forecast is shaping up next.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: At this point in the presidential race, it all comes down to voter turnout. So what role will Mother Nature play in all of this?

SANCHEZ: Let's go to meteorologist Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center. Chad, what is the forecast looking like for Election Day?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Stormy overnight into tomorrow morning in places, into some of the battleground states. Right now we already have tornadoes on the ground in places with a few tornado watches but also tornado warnings going on at this point. So yes, it moves into parts of Arkansas and Missouri.

But watch what happens tomorrow as the rain kind of slides on off toward the east. I'm going to stop it at noon. So rain from Chicago all the way down toward St. Louis. Big cities there, of course, all the way down to the Gulf Coast. And then by tomorrow night when voting is over, things have really calmed down. There will be snow in the Rockies, but the people out there deal with that pretty well.

So pick your state storms all the way from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes and then the colder air back out toward the West. Not that cold, though. And look how warm Columbus 80 degrees tomorrow.

Yes, there'll be some showers in Atlanta, maybe in the morning, but light at best. So let's get right to this. I'm going to kind of speed through these because, yes, there'll be some showers in parts of Wisconsin and also into Michigan.

But the true threat is if there is over one inch of rainfall, that's when the voters start to come down a little bit by 1 percent. Will that be enough or too much guys?

SANCHEZ: Chad Myers, thank you so much for the update.

Stay with CNN because when we come back rides to the polls, doughnuts, milkshakes, some companies offering free perks on Election Day will tell you how to get them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: If fulfilling your civic duty by voting on Election Day isn't enough to get you excited, there are some companies that are looking to sweeten the deal. Rideshare services Uber and Lyft offering 50 percent off trips for those of you going to polling places tomorrow.

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: If you prefer to drive yourself, car rental company Hertz is offering a drive-the-vote deal, allowing a free rental day if you can snag a car before tomorrow. And if you want to satisfy your sweet tooth, you can head into Krispy Kreme, which is giving away a free glazed donut in honor, of course, of "DOUGHmocracy."

It's good to hydrate on Election Day, also good to bring snacks with you, get to the polls, and exercise your rights as a citizen.

Thank you so much for joining us. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END